Saturday, January 3, 2015

It's all about that Base, 'bout that Base... and Rubble (Cheap Slate Basing)

I am sorry for the terrible pun.

So I knew I needed to spice up my larger bases. Looking at my Jetbike Captain online I had to do SOMETHING. With my infantry the snow was enough IMO. It gets really busy really quickly if you start adding stuff to a snow base without enough room. BUT a large base feels entirely empty with just snow.

With this in mind I decided I needed slate.
So I went to Lowes, though I am sure any home improvement store would work. I checked the garden section and the stone section and could find NOTHING. My last hope was flooring.
Jackpot
I found for about 80 cents each a selection of slate bathroom tiles. I bought 5 of them for less than $5. I took them home and double wrapped them in plastic bags and took a regular hammer and a mallet. Outside on my patio (or your driveway, just make sure it is a hard surface you can't damage) and while wearing eye protection, I started smashing the tiles (one to two at a time). The great thing about this is you can get a majority at what ever desired size you want. I got a mix of large and small bits.
Once I had reduced these all to rubble, I put the bits into a plastic colander and rinsed it all with a hose to wash off the dirt and really small bits. I then let them dry overnight. The next day (with only 5 tiles remember) I had this:
Marine for reference purposes only
Now it is all sorts of assorted colours, but with a little drybrushing of a grey/white mixture, and some snow and flock I get these results.

So if you need slate, I recommend giving this a try, as it was super cheap and yielded great results IMO.